Slido for Session Chairs & Moderators - NHS ConfedExpo 2026

As session chair or moderator, you'll have an iPad at the front of your room logged into Slido. This gives you control over the Q&A and lets you see poll results in real time. The AV team handles the slides and polls - your job is to manage the audience questions and leave the room tidy for the next session.

This guide covers the three things you need to do.

1. Viewing poll results

When the AV operator advances to a Slido slide, the poll will launch automatically on the main screen and delegates will vote from their phones. You'll see the results updating live on your iPad at the same time.

You don't need to do anything to make this happen - just keep an eye on the iPad so you can refer to results during discussion if needed. The comfort monitor will also show the slides, but the iPad gives you the Slido host view with more detail.

2. Moderating Q&A

If your session includes audience Q&A through Slido, questions submitted by delegates will appear on your iPad. Your role is to decide which questions make it onto the main screen.

How Q&A moderation works:

By default, questions submitted by the audience will appear in your Q&A list on the iPad for you to review before they appear for other delegates to see. Once approved or dismissed, delegates can upvote each other's questions, so popular questions will rise to the top.

Your job is to review incoming questions and:

• Highlight the best questions to bring them to the speaker's attention - tap the star icon on a question to highlight it
• Dismiss any questions that are off-topic, inappropriate, or duplicates - tap the three-dot menu on a question and select dismiss
• Use the upvote count as a guide - if a question has lots of votes, it matters to the room

When it's time for Q&A, you can read out the top questions and engage the speakers.

Tips for good moderation:

• Keep an eye on the Q&A feed throughout the session, not just during the Q&A slot - questions often come in during presentations
• If multiple questions cover the same ground, pick the best-worded one and dismiss the rest
• Don't feel you need to use every question - quality over quantity
• If a question needs context or is unclear, you can paraphrase it when reading it out

3. Archiving questions between sessions

This is the most important thing you do. Each room is used for multiple sessions across the day. If you don't archive the Q&A at the end of your session, the next session's chair will inherit all of your audience's questions, which is confusing for everyone.

At the end of your session, before you leave the chair position:

1. On the iPad, go to the Q&A section
2. Select each questions - tap the three-dot menu at the side of each submitted question and select 'Archive'.
3. Confirm that the Q&A list is now empty
4. You're done - the next session starts with a clean slate

Archived questions aren't deleted - they're stored in the event backend and can be retrieved later if needed. But they won't be visible to the next session's audience or chair.

Please don't skip this step. If you forget, the next chair will have to deal with your session's leftover questions, and delegates joining Q&A will see questions from a session they weren't in.

Quick checklist

[ ] You know which room you're in and can see the iPad at the front

[ ] You can see the Slido host view on the iPad and it's showing the correct room

[ ] During the session: you're monitoring incoming Q&A questions and highlighting/dismissing as appropriate

[ ] During Q&A: you're reading out or directing attention to the best questions

[ ] At the end of your session: you've archived all Q&A questions and confirmed the list is clear

FAQs

What if the iPad isn't logged in or is showing the wrong room? Find a member of the AV or events team in your room - they can reset it for you. Don't try to log in or switch rooms yourself.

What if no one submits any questions? That's fine - not every session generates Q&A. You can always invite verbal questions from the floor instead.

Can I submit questions myself to get things started? Yes - if the Q&A is quiet, you can type a question into Slido from the iPad to seed the conversation. This can be a good way to warm up a reluctant audience.

What if something inappropriate comes through? Dismiss it immediately using the three-dot menu. If it's seriously inappropriate, flag it to a member of the events team.

Do I need to do anything with the polls? No. The polls are embedded in the slides and the AV operator handles them. You can see the results on your iPad but you don't need to activate or close anything.

What if I forget to archive the questions? Tell the events team as soon as you realise. They can archive remotely, but the sooner the better - ideally before the next session starts.